Month: October 2014

The landscape design of NJ gardens and lawns is perhaps the most crucial factor in extending blooming season. Experts say that before you start gardening, you need to go to a trusted nursery and ask its staff which flowers produce the hardiest blooms. Also, ask them which cultivars and hybrids suit your area’s soil, moisture, and light conditions; the better suited flowers are to an area, the longer they’ll be in bloom.

Prepare to Deadhead

If you want to keep your flowers alive for longer, be prepared to deadhead. This helpful article from eHow.com explains just what this crucial gardening practice is:

The first way to make your plants keep blooming is to deadhead them, or cut off the spent flowers. Since faded flowers don’t add much to the garden, you are already improving appearance by cutting them, but more than that, you are keeping those flowers that have been pollinated from putting their energy into making seeds. If the plant cannot make seeds, it will create more flowers to try to make seeds again. In short, the energy goes into producing flowers rather than seeds. This works particularly well on annuals, as they will bloom a lot to produce all the seed they can. It also works on the returning perennials, but at a certain point perennials put their energy into leaves and roots for next year, so they cannot — and shouldn’t — bloom too much.

Water Deeply

When watering your flowers, be sure to water them deeply and thoroughly each time. By doing so, you encourage their roots to grow deeper into the ground where they are less likely to dry out; this will also anchor them more firmly to the ground. To check if you’re watering deeply enough, take a trowel and dig a few inches beneath the topsoil. If the soil turns up dry, the water isn’t reaching the root zone, so you’ll need to irrigate more thoroughly the next time.

As people say, all good things must come to an end, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your beautiful flowers for as long as possible. Hopefully, these tips will help you do just that!